FURMER, Bernard G. (=Dirck Volkertsz COORNHERT).

Emblematum liber.

      Embarrassment of riches Antwerp, Chr. Plantin, 1575. 4to. Contemporary vellum. Motto in Latin on the title within fine ornamental borders and 25 large numbered engraved emblems by Wiericx, one signed I.H.W. 27, (1 blank) lvs. First edition of a rare and most beautiful emblem book on the use and abuse of riches. The fine artistic engravings were produced in the atelier of the talented Wierix brothers who were among the most prolific printmakers in the Low Countries of their time after the designs by Gerard Groenning. In their long association with Plantin they contributed engravings to many of his important productions. The emblems all centre on humans engaged in rich and sumptuous scenes of dinner and drinking parties, money transactions, scenes of elegant and luxurious life, etc., with a strong architectural background, but they also include a fine emblem on a farmer working in the cornfield and a woman offering him food while another woman is bending over her purse. The last emblem presents a lively scene of the Last Judgment. All emblems have a caption and quotation from the bible above and a four-line Latin verse underneath. The explanatory Latin text is printed on the opposite pages. Only the second emblem has the monogram I.H.W. of Joannes Wierix, on the other plates monograms must have been erased according to Mauquoy-Hendrickx because of Joannes's and Hieronymus' sympathy with the protestants. The publication was a joint venture of Christopher Plantin and Phillip Galle, each taking 250 copies and sharing expenses. The text is by the famous Dutch humanist and - with respect to religion - controversal Dirck Volckertsz. Coornhert (1522-1590) and was published just before he returned to Holland from exile in 1576. He settled in Haarlem again in 1577. Coornhert was befriended with Hendrik Niclaes and other members of the `Huis der Liefde' in Antwerp and the moral issues discussed in De rerum usu et abusu are entirely in keeping with Coornhert's opinions. Probably to avoid potential conflicts with the authorities on account of publishing a work of an author in exile, Galle and Plantin issued the book under the name of the Frisian humanist Bernard Furmer(ius) (1542-1616), born at Leeuwarden in the Northern Netherlands, and historiographer of the States of Friesland since 1597. A Dutch translation under the title Recht ghebruyck ende misbruyck van tydlycke have was published by Plantin at his Leyden office in 1585. An adaptation in Latin by Richard Lubbaeus was published by Johan Jansonius at Arnhem in 1609. The book is of the utmost rarity. Fine copy, with the book plate of Sylvain S. Brunschwig.- (Title sl. dam. at inner margin because of having been pasted to the opposite blank, and with small tear in lower margin). M. Sellink, Philips Galle, I, p. 96-97; H. Puhlmann, De rerum usu et abusu (Antwerpen 1575). Wort und Bild in einem moralphilosophischen Emblembuch des Dirk Volckertszoon Coornhert (Bonn, 1992); Voet, Plantin Press, 1228 and ill. no. 52; Praz p. 344; Landwehr 241; Funck p. 314; Mauquoy-Hendrickx, Wierix, 2289-2314; Bibl. Silvain S. Brunschwig 146; NUC lists one copy.